Nadal hitting with world's #1 junior

[GeoffWilliams]

I like Brad's commenting. Seems like a genuine nice guy. When I asked him, "Why didn't you ever offer to coach Blake?"

He said, with a peeved tone: "I'd never coach Blake. You know, for a guy who went to Harvard, he's not too bright."

I offered to show him a reel of Dryeex black edge 1.25mm from FRance that took two weeks to get that, I had, and he said, "I'm not going to start hitting with spin. I just use alu strung at 52. Most of the pros are using gut/alu hybrids.": Not true, just the top guys like joker and murray and fed. Many are however. McEnroe doesn't know who is using what string at what tension either, and pretends to.

[don_budge]

Andrey Rublev...the junior paradigm goes men's tennis



I saw Andey Rublev defeat Henrik Wiersholm 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 at the 2014 French Open in the second round of the tournament. As you can see from the videos it is the standard issue of the junior game these days. Tremendous groundstrokes...mediocre service motion and little else to talk about. He beat Stefan Koslov in the quarterfinals 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 in his toughest match of the tournament.

It's not so interesting as it is boring actually. But the phenomena is interesting in itself. The thing is these kids are groomed to play this game from day one. Actually let's put it this way...in today's society and today's game they are PROGRAMMED to play this way. By the time they are in the men's game it is too late to change. All of the investment prohibits any radical departure from what got the junior to the top of the junior game.

Ironic that the clip of his serve is at the IMG Academy. This is a place where the players that are already excelling in their own right are "leased" to Nick Bolletieri. The players are accepted into the system but you will never see any new concepts introduced into their games. Ironically...it is this academy that more or less hijacked the classic game into the modern era. Nick was one of the first to hawk the Prince racquet...he appeared in commercials on CBS at the 1984 U. S. Open selling the "new" equipment and the "new" game. Pure snake oil.

The current junior paradigm is to recruit the players young and grind them out with a strong forehand, a two handed backhand and a mediocre serve. It's boring...it's a boring game for young minds, so you end up with what you see. Nothing evolves...the "physicality" only gets more mature. Introducing one handed backhands and all court tennis including serve and volley tactics is nearly impossible when you have some hotshot junior high up in the rankings. What's the motivation to change? Where are the role models ala John McEnroe to play a different style particularly when every coach is in lock step and being ground out through a rigid certification process.

Every one of them nodding their heads in unison. Strong forehand...uh huh. Two handed backhand...uh huh. Backcourt tennis...uh huh.

Andrey Rubley wasn't so impressive. Sure he hit hard from the baseline. He seemed like a petulant, spoiled brat to me. He had a running conversation with a woman that I am assuming was his mother during his match with Henrik. He acted as if he was doing Henrik a favor when he lost the second set to him. The hairdo was unique...except I had seen it on Anthony Michael Hall in "The Breakfast Club" many years ago.

I was a bit critical of Andrey Rublev in this thread and received some criticism for it. I stand by what I said. Rublev is really improving physically...but nothing has fundamentally changed. The comments still stand. Any thoughts? He looked pretty good against some of the other opponents. I didn't see his match against Dimitrov. In fact all that I saw was some of the Nadal match.

[arturohernandez]

I was a bit critical of Andrey Rublev in this thread and received some criticism for it. I stand by what I said. Rublev is really improving physically...but nothing has fundamentally changed. The comments still stand. Any thoughts? He looked pretty good against some of the other opponents. I didn't see his match against Dimitrov. In fact all that I saw was some of the Nadal match.

I agree with this general assessment. I think that Zverev will suffer from the same problem. Very few 2hbh players are like Nadal in that they work on their volleys, play doubles and are motivated to attack the net and win points.

Thus, we are left with one handers who might be the next to break the mold. That leaves us Dimitrov, Thiem and Shapovalov. Only Shapovalov has the aggressive game to win and clearly likes to come to the net.

I feel that he stayed back against Carreño Busta too much. In fact, here is the perfect example. A very solid player with a two handed bh that hits better off his back foot and thus has no chance to win a GS.

My money is on Shapavolov in a few years. When I saw him it reminded me of what I felt the first time I saw Rafa.

I remember thinking. Wow, he is going to be really good!